


Among Shadows

by Puffcat



Series: Among Shadows AU [1]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen, M/M, Multi, NOT an AU for the show supernatural, Ships are subtle, Slice of Life, Soft Horror, can't stress that bit enough, genre appropriate violence/death, just has vampires and demons in it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:40:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28739658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puffcat/pseuds/Puffcat
Summary: In which a ragtag bunch of supernatural creatures face their greatest challenge yet; a group of college students too broke and too desperate to live anywhere else but the abandoned house they inhabit.
Relationships: Atobe Keigo/Tezuka Kunimitsu, Hiyoshi Wakashi/Kaidou Kaoru/Kirihara Akaya/Zaizen Hikaru, Sanada Genichirou/Yukimura Seiichi
Series: Among Shadows AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2107017
Comments: 8
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue: The Gathering

The house at the very end of Elderberry Road was an aging, decrepit thing. Peeling, mildewy paint covered the panels on the outside, vines crept up and over the window ledges and inside the cracks of dusty, dark windows with shutters that hung from a single hinge. Curtains fluttered behind the panes, moved by the drafts running throughout the house. Gnarled trees dotted the front and side yards, giving way to a deep, forbidding stretch of forest in the back. The wrought iron gates that no longer closed properly due to rust creaked and screeched ominously when a hard wind blew. The stone path to the large double front doors was all but covered by wildly overgrown grass and weeds that hadn’t seen a mower in decades. 

It was an ideal haven. 

Yukimura had been with the house since its creation roughly 200 years ago. He’d seen countless families move in, and he was often directly responsible for driving them out. Most of them, at least. Some never escaped. And while these days there was no steady influx of souls for him to prey on, the demon appreciated the quiet. He didn’t mind going out to hunt, if it meant he had an undisturbed place like this to come home to. 

It was fifty years ago now that the property had last housed any person. Which was about the time that Yukimura found his first “roommate”.

He’d found Sanada in the woods behind the house, skin bloody and chest heaving as he struggled to breathe. For a moment, Yukimura had considered ripping out his soul then and there, but when he saw the horrific bite wound below his ribs, dark and sticky and oozing, he knew. There was no point in killing him, for when a werewolf bites, they take their victim’s humanity and dooms them to a cursed life as neither man nor beast. The lupine assailant had long since fled the scene, and Yukimura doubted he’d come back. The demonic hints of sulfur and brimstone that followed him would have tipped the wolf off that this was _not_ a place they wanted to hunt. And so they had left their victim to die slow, alone, and afraid.

At the time, Yukimura hadn’t known what had possessed him to carry the boy’s broken form to the house and up into the attic. Perhaps he’d taken pity on him, if a demon was even capable of such an emotion. Perhaps it had been his handsome face, still apparent despite his glassy, gaunt eyes and pale skin. Or, perhaps, because Yukimura was tired of being alone. Being tied to a house so long, it’s not like he came across other supernatural beings very often. And after watching humans for decade after decade, he found the idea of having a puppy vaguely intriguing. 

And luckily for him, his puppy was fully capable of holding a conversation. It took Sanada some time to get used to the idea that he could never go back to his family, and that most of the Halloween monsters he’d dressed up as when he was a child were real. Getting used to his cravings for raw meat when a full moon neared was also an unpleasant adjustment.

The family that had owned the house back in those days had no idea that they’d had yet another unwelcome guest in the attic. But they were very aware of the strange happenings that Yukimura caused. Flickering lights, footsteps in the darkness when all the family was snug in their beds. Whispers in their ears, tempting them to do horrible things. When the parents found their young daughter standing over their bed in the dead of night with a kitchen knife, eyes blackened and unseeing, that had been the final straw. 

An exorcist came to the house at the mother’s plea, hoping that would drive the evil from their home once and for all. A full moon hung high in the autumn sky when he went in, crosses and sage and holy water in hand. But holy water was no match for the snarling, territorial werewolf that he’d found in the attic, golden eyes glowing in the shadows. He hadn’t even had time to scream. 

As it turns out, even if their throat has been ripped out, a human can survive just long enough for a demon to consume his soul. 

The exorcist never came back out of that house. And the family that lived there never went back in. 

After that, the house remained empty of human life. The rumors surrounding the property drove any potential buyers far away, and even the local police refused to search the property for the missing exorcist, or any of the others last seen at the house.

Yukimura was quite pleased, happy to have free run of the place. Sanada was as well; he felt that sleeping in a bed and acting the part of a human made him less of a monstrosity. Made it easier to cope with the fact that he’d murdered in cold blood, had eaten the flesh and bone of what was once his own kind. 

The two lived in peace and solitude for several years after that. Yukimura was surprised how comfortable he felt in Sanada’s presence. For being only 18 when he’d been turned, he was level-headed; never made a mess or tried to get drunk, or did anything stupid when he transformed. Sanada, for his part, had been conflicted at first. He’d wondered why Yukimura had saved him, rather than let him die, alone and in pain in the woods that night. And then, what had Yukimura wanted from him? Sanada knew very little about demons, but he had assumed they were all cunning, sly, masters of deception who were only out for themselves. But that hardly seemed the case.

In fact, one morning, when he’d awoken still in his wolf form, he’d found Yukimura fast asleep, leaning against his side with his long fingers buried in his inky-black fur. He’d never seen the demon look so…soft. He’d been adapting a more human form, probably to make Sanada feel more comfortable. And he’d had to admit, it was working. Asleep like this, Yukimura’s long, wavy hair fell across his face and over his eyes, obscuring the thick lashes that barely brushed his pale cheeks. It was almost enough to distract from the ridged, obsidian horns curved out of his hair, and the whipcord tail that curled delicately in his lap.

For the first time since he’d been reborn - he refused to call it anything else - Sanada felt comfortable. Like perhaps this wouldn’t be such a terrible eternity after all. 

But comfort never lasts forever, and the unexpected arrival of two new guests certainly threw a wrench into Sanada and Yukimura’s lives. Especially Sanada’s.

Within five minutes of being discovered - confronted, really, as he walked into the old house like he _owned it_ \- the vampire had remarked that the wet dog smell was overpowering, and that he hoped all the furniture wasn’t infested with fleas. Handsome as he might have been, Sanada had been ready to relieve him of his pretty head right then and there. 

Yukimura, unfortunately, was interested in him, having never met a vampire before. And as they derived their sustenance from different aspects of humans, he didn’t feel threatened in the least. The only problem came when Yukimura demanded that the vampire, who called himself Atobe Keigo, reveal the location of his companion. 

Atobe tried to play it off as nothing but speculation on Yukimura’s part, but the strong scent of old earth and decay that hung around him had Yukimura on his guard, and for good reason.

Finally, Atobe had relented, and nodded once toward the corner of the house, where the shadows stretched long and dark in the moonlight. Every hair on Sanada’s body stood on end as the shadows shifted, and a tall figure came forward, melting out of the shadow, body so dark it seemed to absorb all the light around it. Hungry red eyes gazed straight into Sanada’s very soul, sunken deep into the sockets of a deer skull where the creature’s face should have been. The bone was cracked in some places with rotting flesh still clinging to others, and its impressive rack of antlers was a crown of razor-sharp points. The creature drew itself up to its full height, towering over all of them as it hovered behind Atobe, never blinking. 

Even Yukimura was visibly taken aback, though not nearly as scared as Sanada felt. He could feel his heart pumping loud in his ears, and every muscle in his body tensed, but whether it was to fight or flee, he did not know yet. But all the while, he never once broke eye contact with it. 

It was, even for a pair of murderous beings such as themselves, absolutely terrifying to behold. Raw power radiated from it like a nuclear core, and Sanada knew instinctively that whatever this thing was, it was very old, and _very_ dangerous.

“It’s not every day that you see a servant of the Ancient Ones, let alone with a vampire. Explain yourselves.” Yukimura was the first to break the silence, and Sanada saw the effort it took for him to steel himself, though it was imperceptible to anyone but him. They both knew that attacking now would doom them both.

Atobe, for his part, didn’t resist, and began to recount his tale. He’d come across Tezuka nearly two centuries ago - and Sanada couldn’t imagine why such a dreadful, nightmarish thing even had a name, let alone one so normal - on his travels; hateful of what he’d become. He’d been skittish and unpredictable, and very untrusting of Atobe. But Atobe had somehow convinced Tezuka to part with his ancestral lands and come with him, away from the village that had repeatedly tried to hunt him down and kill him. They’d since traveled together, and had just happened across this place, hoping it had been empty. Which, as they now knew, it very much wasn’t. 

But rather than turn the two away, like Sanada so desperately hoped he would, Yukimura had given them the opportunity to stay for one week. And perhaps longer, if they could prove themselves useful. 

Thirty years later, Sanada still found himself subjected to the occasional dog joke, and had long since become used to the sickly, rotting scent that seemed to follow Tezuka wherever he went. 

Tezuka, as he found out, was actually fairly pleasant to be around, once he’d used whatever kind of magic he had to give himself a roughly human-looking body. He was still very skinny, and no amount of food would fill out his lanky, pale frame. His limbs blackened at the ends, and he still had unnaturally long, clawed fingers. Copper hair hung long and unkempt around his cheeks, sticking up at odd angles where his ever-present antlers sprouted from it. Atobe was constantly fussing over it, begging him to at least put some effort into taming it, which he never did. And his face, his _startlingly_ human face. Well. It was the opposite of the horrific visage of his true form. Gone were the decaying skull and sunken eyes, replaced with deathly-pale skin stretched thin over sharp cheekbones, and eyes of red-hazel that were especially breathtaking when the dying light of the sun hit them just so. He was still unearthly, but now in a way that tended toward the beautiful, rather than the horrid. If one could forget what was lurking under the disguise. 

Tezuka was a being of few words, and Sanada liked that about him. And when he did speak, it was with a soft, but quietly firm voice. It sounded so...normal. Very mismatched with his wild and dark appearance. 

Somehow, the unconventional, motley crew that had assembled through nothing more than luck and circumstance managed a fairly peaceful coexistence in the aging house at the end of the road.

It almost felt…normal, some days, especially for Sanada, who’s memories of humanity were still vivid and a bit raw. Looking back, had he known this would have been his fate, he would have checked himself into an insane asylum. 

Atobe was happy to finally put his travels behind him; while the Victorian mansion was hardly the grand European castle he’d been driven from centuries ago, it was safe, private, and came with a very large territory. And it was welcoming to his companion, which was, though he’d never admit it, the most important part.

Yukimura, for his part, hadn’t lived with another being willingly since he was dragged up from hell and bound to the place. And he was surprised at how well he adapted to the rapid change. The house had never been so full of life. Or rather, ‘un-death’, might be the best way of putting it, he supposed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy y'all! It's been some time since I've written anything substantial for the tenipuri fandom. I've had this idea for quite some time, inspired by media like "What We Do in the Shadows", "Welcome to Night Vale", and "Old Gods of Appalachia" to name a few. This is one of those works that won't really have a true ending, but will update with vignettes as they come to me. Plot is minimal, horrifying shenanigans are maximal. I hope you enjoy! Kudos, comment, or hit me up on twitter (@Puffcat16049) if you're a fan of my work.
> 
> Thanks very much for reading!
> 
> -Puff


	2. An Unwelcome Arrival

Dust motes hung in the air, illuminated by the weak rays of new sunlight trickling through the single window in the attic. Sanada, still in his wolf form after a night of prowling, snuffled quietly, thick tail twitching sporadically as he slept. Tucked into his side, sheltered from the light, Tezuka lay motionless, face pressed into the soft fur of Sanada’s chest and thin limbs pulled close to his body, which was held protectively under one of Sanada’s large paws. The collection of mattresses and blankets they lay upon squeaked quietly in protest under Sanada’s weight, but the noise was not enough to wake the unusual occupants of the old, drafty room at the top of the house. 

The knock at the front door though, echoed though the place like a gunshot. 

Sanada sat bolt upright, ears pricked and on high alert. Tezuka instinctively melted into the shadows, concealing himself from whomever dared to approach their haven. It was only a few seconds later that the trap door opened, and Yukimura lept up into the attic, Atobe close behind him. 

The three of them stared at each other. No mortal had come to their door in decades. 

Finally, Atobe spoke up. 

“Who could be stupid enough to knock on the door of the - quite literally - most haunted building in the city?”

***

“This is the place, right?” Akaya looked back over his shoulder at his three roommates from the front porch, all of whom were still on the sidewalk.

“Nope. Absolutely not.” Kaidoh turned on his heel, ready to walk right back down the road, get in their car, and never come back to this horribly creepy looking old house. But Zaizen grabbed the back of his jacket and hauled him up next to the group. 

“Come on, it’s just a house, Kaoru. Plus, we can’t turn down the price of rent.” As he spoke, his phone buzzed, and he reached into his jacket pocket. “Huh. The realtor can’t make it. Says to just go in and look around, it should be unlocked and the keys have been missing for years anyway. And if we like it... to come sign everything at his office.”

Hiyoshi raised an eyebrow, looking skeptically at the property. “This is arguably the sketchiest thing I’ve ever done. And that’s saying something, considering I’m dating you three.” He sighed, and stepped past the ancient front gate. “But Hikaru’s right, this is our last chance. Let’s go. If we die, at least we don’t have to pay tuition anymore.”

Zaizen gently nudged Kaidoh along, following Hiyoshi up to the porch where Akaya waited for them. 

The second they crossed the threshold, a strong, cold wind blew across the yard, rattling the shutters and whistling through the broken windows. Kaidoh visibly stiffened, but Zaizen grabbed his hand reassuringly.

“It’ll be fine, like I said, it’s just an empty house.”

***

From the attic window, Yukimura watched, dumbfounded, as the four boys approached the front door. He relayed to his companions what he had seen. 

“College kids?? Fifty years of peace, and the first humans we see here aren’t ghost hunters, aren’t exorcists, aren’t even house renovators, but _college kids._ Now I’ve seen everything.” Atobe swooned dramatically, hand over his eyes as he fell back against Sanada, who was currently blocking the sunlight from touching his ghostly skin. 

Yukimura shrugged. “That just means they’ll be easier to scare out. But it is odd that they’re even here in the first place.”

Atobe sat up, looking determined. “Who cares why they’re here? This property is _ours,_ I won’t have these ruffians turning it into their personal frat house.”

Sanada wholeheartedly agreed with him. 

In front of them, Yukimura stretched languidly, a nefarious grin painted across his face. “They did come all this way, though... it would be a pity not to welcome them properly, wouldn’t it?”

Atobe smirked back at him, scarlet eyes gleaming. “An absolute shame.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The boys make their arrival! I really enjoy writing these four, the dynamic is so fun to feel out. This is a rather short introduction, I know, but I promise, the good stuff is coming soon!
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> -Puff


	3. Scoping out the New (Very Old) Digs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If the boys thought the _yard _was creepy, they got a big storm comin', as they say.__

Akaya barely pushed on the door before it swung inward with a horrid screech that echoed in the dark, empty foyer. A gust of cool musty air rushed out to meet them, and it was with great hesitation that they finally made it across the threshold.

Looking around and absolutely _not_ hiding behind Hiyoshi, one hand on the doorknob, Kaidoh realized that all those haunted houses his younger brother used to drag him into were absolutely accurate. The interior, or what they could see of it anyway, looked as though it hasn’t been redecorated in a hundred years. The whole place was dark, lit only by the weak sunlight fighting its way through the dusty windows and heavy velvet drapes. Old light fixtures, or perhaps oil lamps, sat up close to the ceiling in the hall, strewn with cobwebs that fluttered when a draft swept through. Peering into what was probably the parlor, Zaizen took note of the furniture covered in greying, threadbare sheets. At least there _was_ furniture, the desperate-for-housing part of his brain supplied helpfully.

“I’m going to have an asthma attack just looking at this dust,” quipped Hiyoshi, finally breaking the silence.

Akaya wrinkled his nose in confusion. “You don’t have asthma though?”

“In this place, just give it five more minutes. I’ll get there.”

Before Akaya could inquire further, a faint whisper crept forth from somewhere deep in the back of the house, curling around their ears and raising the hairs on the back of their neck.

_Welcome, young ones..._

Kaidoh gripped Zaizen’s shoulder, knuckles white and eyes wide with terror. “Y-You all...heard that, right...?” He hissed softly, looking around the hall.

“I. Heard a breeze,” Zaizen said staunchly, refusing to let himself admit that he’d very clearly heard words. He wasn’t going to chicken out five feet past the door. Nope, not him. “Anyway. Let’s go look around.” The floorboard that creaked ominously under his feet made Akaya startle where he stood next to Hiyoshi.

“I’d really rather not but- Oh, and there you go.” Hiyoshi sighed as Zaizen walked further into the parlor. “Well, I don’t want to see him killed in here so. Come on.” Steeling himself, and practically dragging Kaidoh behind him, Hiyoshi ushered Akaya after their other lover.

Past the parlor, through a door covered in peeling yellowed paint, was a kitchen. Every bit as unused as the rest of the house, tarnished copper pots hung from hooks above the gas stove that looked like it came straight out of a black and white movie. Kaidoh made a note to thoroughly clean it before use, all that dust would surely catch the house on fire. The small rickety table, tucked into a corner, hosted four equally spindly chairs, which looked as though they might break the moment something touched them. But the one glaring thing lacking was a-

“Where’s the fridge?”

“I don’t even think this place has running water, you’re surprised that it doesn’t have a fridge? We’ll just. Have to use those ones from our dorm rooms. We have at least two between the two of us.” Zaizen frowned, trying to count the number of appliances between the four of them. If his mental math was correct-

“What the shit-!”

His train of thought was broken by Akaya’s yelp. He turned to find him pointing at the corner of the room next to the pantry, which was cloaked in shadow.

“Something moved! I swear, I saw that shadow move, I did.”

This time it was Kaidoh who tried to be brave, although he edged pointedly away from the wall. “You did not. You’re just scaring yourself again.”

And to prove his point, Hiyoshi stepped up to the corner, and waved his hand around. Nothing moved even an inch. “See, its fine. Everything’s…” He trailed off. For as his hand had come in contact with the wall, it seemed as though all the heat had been leeched off his skin. And there was the faintest scent of something horribly sweet, something rotting playing about his nostrils. Hiyoshi immediately drew his hand back from the wall, turning back to the others. But as he did so, he swore he saw, in his periphery, wisps of shadow shimmer like oil on a sidewalk. He said not a word of it, even as his heart skipped a beat.

“So that’s the kitchen, what else is there?”

“Oh, secret passages maybe!” Seemingly distracted from the odd shadow, Akaya looked hopefully around.

Rolling his eyes, but with a smile, Zaizen lead them into the next room. The dining room. The table was long and grand, made of a sturdy, heavy wood. Tarnished silver candelabras stood along its center, filled with candles that had once stood tall, but now were almost completely melted down, hard wax flowing down the arms. An ornate mirror hung on the wall behind the head of the table, taking up almost a third of the empty space. On the adjacent walls hung portraits of stern, venerable looking men and somber families in tones of sepia. The depressing air of the pictures fit quite well with the house.

“Hey, I found an outlet,” Kaidoh called softly, kneeling down to peer at the small, electricity-carrying miracle hole at the foot of a wall. The others crowded around it, inspecting it.

“It looks…functional, actually.”

“Think we can put a power strip on it?”

“There’s gotta be more than just this, right?”

After deciding that the outlet was in fact, probably the most modern thing inside these walls, the four decided to check out the upper floors of the house. The second floor contained four spacious bedrooms, which, like the rest of the house, were fully furnished. Kaidoh did however insist on new bedspreads. And a thorough check of the mattresses for bed bugs. On the plus side, the beds were quite a bit larger than the ones they’d crammed themselves into in the freshman dorms.

For the most part the bedrooms were…surprisingly normal. They even found a few more outlets. It was only when they moved up to the third level, did things start to go awry.

“Are those pawprints?” Akaya stared down at the dust on the stairs, leading up to what they assumed were more bedrooms. And there was no way that the disturbance in the grime could be anything else. Perhaps there was a stray cat in the house. That is, if the cat was actually a lion.

“God, they’re the size of my head…” murmured Hiyoshi, but his awe was quickly overshadowed by the realization that there was, one; an animal big enough to leave those prints, and two; that it clearly had access to their house. It was in that moment that Hiyoshi dearly wished he’d brought his pepper spray. Because his martial arts training sure as shit wouldn’t stop whatever this thing was. And those prints looked recent.

Zaizen seemed to have come to the same realization. “Well. I think it’s high time we finish up our little tour. All in favor?”

The others quickly raised their hands.

“Good.”

With that, Zaizen grabbed Akaya’s hand and retreated back down the stairs, Hiyoshi and Kaidoh hot on their heels. Just as they hit the last step, they heard something big, something _heavy_ moving around up in the attic. The four froze in place, not even daring to breathe. The ceiling groaned with each step of the creature as it paced back and forth, before finally coming to a halt. After a moment’s pause, the boys heard a door slam open somewhere in the third floor hall.

Kaidoh’s heart rocketed up into his throat, breath catching on a scream. He turned and fled without a second thought, not even bothering to check and see if his boyfriends had followed him. It was only after he stumbled back through the front door and down the steps of the porch, all the way past the gate and finally into the street, did he look behind him.

Luckily, Hiyoshi, Zaizen, and Akaya had followed suit, and all looked visibly shaken, breathing hard from the exertion and the adrenaline rush.

“I-I I don’t-” Kaidoh sat hard on the pavement, eyes wide, still trying to calm his heart, which was still hammering.

Akaya too was unsure what to think, and he stood staring, eyes wide, back at the old house. “There’s something in there guys…”

“No fuckin’ duh,” snapped Zaizen, though the hostility was undercut by his own obvious anxiety. “We gotta call animal control about that.”

“Large carnivores aren’t supposed to live around here…” said Hiyoshi, trying to apply logic to the situation, but Akaya wasn’t having it.

“Who cares what you learned in biology! We all heard it! We all saw its footprints! That thing’s a murder-beast! And it almost murderized us!”

Kaidoh, for his part, was more focused on what Zaizen had said. “Animal control? You say that like we’re going to come back here…!”

“Do you have another alternative? We can’t drop out, our tuition’s paid! It’s this or being homeless.”

“I can’t believe you’re actually considering this.”

Kaidoh stalked over to the car, or tried to, as his legs were still wobbly from the fear. He shut himself inside, refusing to speak any more on this subject. And when the others joined him in the car, he sighed in relief, thinking that home and all its comforts was finally within his reach again.

Except it wasn’t.

Because when the car stopped again, it was in front of the realtor’s office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna try my best to update semi-regularly - hopefully every week or so, but we'll see now that I'm back in school! Thank you to everyone who's read, liked, and commented! Glad to have you along on this creepy little meander.
> 
> -Puff


	4. Get Thee to a Notary, STAT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys learn that perhaps Kaidoh is exactly the right combination of wary and worried about their new living situation. If only certain municipal employees had that same instinct...

“Kaoru, you’ve been scribbling in that notebook since we signed the lease. Why?” Hiyoshi glanced back at him in the rearview mirror from the passenger seat of the beat-up Camry, both impressed and incredulous that he wasn’t carsick.

Kaidoh didn’t look up from his work. “Writing my will.”

“Fuck off, no you aren’t,” said Zaizen as he turned his attention to the GPS to make sure he was turning onto the correct street.

Akaya leaned over, peering at his boyfriend’s writing over the laundry baskets of clothes, electronics, and the few housewares they owned between them. “He is! It literally says, ‘the last will and testament of Kaidoh Kaoru’. Wait a minute…” He squinted, skimming the passages. “You aren’t leaving anything to us!”

“It’s because he thinks we’re gonna die too. Right?” Hiyoshi asked playfully, knowing from Kaidoh’s scowl that he was fully correct.

Zaizen sighed. “For the last time, no one’s going to die, I already called animal control about…whatever is skulking around the property, and we have approval to change the locks and get new keys, _on the realtor’s dime_ , I might add.” The car slowed to at stop at the curb in front of their new home. Throwing it into park, Zaizen turned to look properly at his boyfriends. “We will be fine, and we will make this work. Because there’s literally no other way we can swing this.” It was as much an effort to convince himself as it was the others.

“Oh look, animal control is already here, great.”

“Let’s see if they caught anything!” Akaya was already out of the car and making his way over to the truck parked in front of them.

The others followed, but soon realized that the vehicle was empty. 

“He’s probably inside.” Hiyoshi shrugged and turned back to the car. “Let’s just start moving everything in, we’ve still got another load at the dorms to grab.”

They began the slow process of hauling their belongings into the house, taking the time to move them away from the front entrance, because as Akaya pointed out, ‘we still can’t lock the doors yet, right?’ Bedrooms were claimed - there were more than enough to accommodate the four of them - though they all settled on sleeping together in the master on the third floor. The individual rooms were more of just a personal space should any of them need or want privacy. But as they moved about the house, getting a better lay of the land, something nagged at Kaidoh.

“Has anyone seen or heard the animal control guy?”

Zaizen paused from where he was attempting to rid an old dresser of dust. “Now that you mention it, I haven’t.”

“Maybe he’s on lunch or something. There’s an old diner a couple streets over right? He could have walked there,” Hiyoshi rationalized as he folded one of Akaya’s shirts. “He’ll be back at some point, let’s go get the last of our stuff.”

***

Almost an hour later when the boys returned, the truck was still there, and still very empty.

“So uh. When do we tell someone about this?” Akaya worried his lip between his teeth, glancing up at the attic window at the top of the house. He was thinking what they all were, but no one wanted to say it aloud.

“There’s nothing to tell.” Zaizen said staunchly. “We didn’t see or hear anything weird, and an empty truck on the curb is no reason to get the police involved. Let’s just move this stuff in and figure out how to lock the place up for the night.”

In the end, bungee cords were used to secure the front door, and a trip to the local hardware store was planned for the following morning. A more pressing problem, however, was attempting to make dinner. The kitchen was almost completely unusable, mostly, as with everything else, because of the dust and cobwebs, but also because of the lack of electrical inspection. And it was quickly growing dark.

Propping a flashlight on the rickety old table, Kaidoh tried to find a place to plug in the electric kettle, filled with bottled water they’d bought from the grocery. It looked like instant ramen and takeout was their sustenance for the foreseeable future. And maybe not even that, if the outlets didn’t work. Perhaps they could find a cheap, shitty generator somewhere…

“Ah, here’s one…” On his hands and knees, fully under the table, Kaidoh went to plug the kettle in.

“Please don’t electrocute yourself.” Hiyoshi muttered, fishing around the box labeled “food”, in search of the ramen cups.

Kaidoh rolled his eyes and stuck the prongs into the outlet. The entire house lit up like a Christmas tree, sconce lamps flickering to life all around them. Kaidoh startled so badly he cracked his head on the bottom of the table and swore, hissing in pain. “Shit…!”

“Woah, what the hell?”

“Kaoru, you’re magic!”

Rubbing his head, Kaidoh backed out from under the table. “Ugh… I guess that answers the question about the electrical in this house.” He flipped the switch on the kettle and gingerly sat down in the sturdiest looking of the kitchen chairs.

“Good thing the stove didn’t turn on, or this place would have gone up in flames.” Zaizen eyed the old range warily. “Actually, Akaya, hand me those paper towels and cleaning spray, I need that thing to not be a fire hazard before we go to bed.”

As they waited for the water to boil, Hiyoshi decided to help Zaizen tidy up, electing to start with the brick oven set into the wall next to the stove. Grabbing a toilet brush – the closest thing they had to a scour brush at the moment, which they’d nicked from their dorm bathroom – he carefully unlatched the iron deadbolt. The oven door swung open with a metallic shriek, and a puff of musty air engulfed Hiyoshi. Coughing, he tried his best to fan it away. “Gods, this place is -ack! Gross…” He grabbed the flashlight from the table and shone it into the oven. What it illuminated though, sent Hiyoshi’s heart skyrocketing into his mouth.

A pile of clothes sat in the middle, still shiny-wet with the rich, scarlet blood that soaked the fibers. A single patch caught his eye though, and the three words embroidered across it scared him more than the clothes themselves.

_County Animal Control._

Hiyoshi slammed the over door shut with all the force he could muster, spun on his heel, and walked out of the kitchen, hands shaking. “I. I need air.”

Kaidoh went after him, unnerved by the way his usually imperturbable boyfriend’s face had so quickly drained of color.

Akaya, ever curious, opened the oven and peered inside. He then soundlessly shut the door again and turned to Zaizen, who was regarding the situation with wary apprehension. “I think Kaoru had the right idea. Maybe we should all write our wills.”

***

It was determined, after much hushed discussion and comforting hand squeezes that they would not, in fact, be reporting this to the police. There was no longer any doubt in their minds that there _was_ something terribly, horribly wrong in this place. But Hiyoshi’s fingerprints were on the oven door, and the county employee, who they _still_ hadn’t seen, and at this point did not want to, was last at this house, and by now... Well. Things didn’t look good.

Zaizen was the one who had the idea to fire up the oven. They had matches, there was an old wood pile in the yard, and the remaining ashes could be neatly buried somewhere in the woods behind the house. They would not mention the employee again, deny ever seeing him if anyone came asking, and that would be that.

They all tried very hard not to think about what they were burning as they sat around the table, eating their cup noodles. Hiyoshi still looked a bit peaky, but was determined not to let the contents of the oven, and what it implied, get the better of him.

“We’re sleeping all together, right?” Akaya asked, knowing the answer but needing to confirm it anyway, for his own peace of mind.

The others nodded their agreement. It would likely be a long time before any of them slept soundly, let alone without company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the later update! Between school starting up again and recent health concerns, I've been sadly preoccupied with things that are not this. But rest assured there's more to come! These four and their paranormal landlords are just getting started. 
> 
> As always, thank you very much for the reads, kudos, and comments! Y'all are all so sweet for tuning into my little story.
> 
> -Puff


End file.
